The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-24
NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE
MEN WHO MAKE PEOPLE TALK IN
SPITE OF THEMSELVES.

An Intuitive Knowledge of Human
Nature Necessary to be Successful
Interviewer Dazzling Glory OF
the Seaside Swell and the Estimate
Sensible People Put on Him.
New YORK, July 3.-When anybody in
New York does anything that entities him
TO publicity he very soon gains an idea of
the immensely of that engine of human pro
gresS. the newspaper. More than forty
reporters will besiege him and his life will
be made burden until he ceases to be
of public interest
One of the most striking recent cases IL
lustrating newspaper enterprise in the me-
tropols was witnessed at the hanging OF
the murderer Peter Smith. A New York
afternoon paper had arranged TO publish an
extra as soon as the doomed man had been
hanged. The execution took place in the
ward of the Tombs In accordance with
the statute only twelve reporters were adj
mitted to witness the hanging, and they
were given ingress to the prison Enclosure
only as members of the jury inspectors.
They had to remain until the execution had
taken place and then sign their names to
the certificate averring that the criminal
had been duly and thoroughly hanged. Not
until each reporter had signed this docu-
ment was he permitted to leave the Jail yard,
and it was fully twenty minutes before the
forms of the law had been complied with.
The representative of an evening paper,
foreseeng this delay, arranged III an unique
manner to send the news of the execution to
his journal. He purchased a big base ball
which he carried in his pocket, within the
high, walled enclosure Of the TOmbs BY
preconcertod arrangement at the office
boy stood outside the enclosure, having been
warned that as soon as he should see the ball
come over the wall he should note the time
and run TO the office of the paper five blocks
away and carry the news, thus enabling his
paper to get out an early extra edition an
nouncing the execution. The boy stood out
side the high walls that surround the TOmls
and never turned his eyes from the point
where he had been informed the ball would
be tossed over The instant that Smith was
hanged, the representative of the paper,
whose boy stood outside the prison wall,
dashed away from the gallows, hurled the
ball over the Tombs wall. The boy, seeing
the ball come over, noted the time, ran to
the office and gave the news. Within five
minutes after the murderer had been
hanged an extra edition of the paper in
question announcing his death was being
sold on the streets. The boy who had taken
the news to the office had not stopped to
pick up the base ball thrown over the wall
by the reporter and dozen lads Of the
crowd of boys who play about the Tombs
walls, darted forward and seized the ball.
There are in New York more than twenty
newspaper men who are professional inter
viewers. 1t requires a special order of tai
ent to be good interviewer and a thorough
knowledge of public affairs. 1t demands,
too, a special knowledge of human nature.
Every man except, perhaps, Roscoe Conk-
ling, can be interviewed Mr.. Conkling is
so stern and frigid that a newspaper man is
seldom able to get a word out of him.
The professional newspaper interviewer in
<~SY York, as elsewhere, has certain rules
which r-~yern his conduct in approaching a
difficult subject He appeals to the vanity
of man whose face seems to indicate self
esteem to the combativeness of the person
who appears to be quarrelsome or to the re
igious sentiment of the individual who is
apparently of a serious turn of mind.
One of the most remarkable instances of
newspaper interviewing was thQt of a man
now in New York who one night received a
dispatch at Toledo, where he was then at
work, to the effect that lady who had gone
down in the train at the terrible Ashtabula
accident and escaped unscathed would ar
rive in Toledo on her way westward at $50
III the eNbHlHS, On IL LIKE DHpit
train. The person who sent the telegram
forgot TO give her name, and the interviewer
had to find her by natural instinct The
train stopped in Toledo but fifteen minutes.
The reporter approached young lady in a
sleeping car, and by the merest chance bit
upon the right person. She said that She
was the woman who had gone down with
the train at Ashtabula, but when she
learned that her interrogation was q news
Sh hat
she would not talk as she had decided OBJ
lection to having her name and declarations
in print. The interviewer, who was a
shrewd student of human nature, studied
the lady's face moment and thought that
he discovered in il markings of a strong re
iigious sentiment. He acted upon his judg-
ment and began to congratulate the lady on
the miraculous deliverance that kind
Providence had given her from a fearful
fate. Her soul was moved, and all forget
full that she was talking to a newspaper
man, she related a graphic story of the ter
rible accident. She told it in an artless
manner, grew earnest as she progressed, and
did not cease talking until the train was
moving out of the depot Then the reporter
arose, touched his hat and said to the young
lady: II beg your pardon, but despite your
objections, you have been interviewed y The
young lady tried in vain TO call him back,
and not until he had gone did she realize
that his adroltness i'll appealing to her relg-
ious sentiment had led her to talk in spite
of herself
The average journalist is n good person to
interview, but the politician is ordinarily
chary of the newspaper interrogation Col.
Ingersol has lately adopted rule to the
effect that he will not be interviewed He
is, however, very courteous TO newspaper
men. Recently a reporter wrote out twelve
questions for stated interview and handed
them to Mr.. Ingersoll. He wrote the re-
plies at considerable length, and the article,
which pertained entirely to the great Ameri-
can system Of interviewing, was one of the
brightest productions that ever proceeded
from Mr.. Ingersoll pen.
AMOS j. CUMMINGS.
II.
The seaside swell is about the most alnaz-
ing outcome of the nineteenth century civil